{"id":4968,"date":"2015-02-02T12:27:10","date_gmt":"2015-02-02T18:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/?p=4968"},"modified":"2015-02-02T14:34:26","modified_gmt":"2015-02-02T20:34:26","slug":"denali","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/2015\/02\/denali\/","title":{"rendered":"Denali?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I still want to change my middle name.<\/p>\n

I’ve written about this before. Over four years ago, I wrote a blog explaining that seeing my middle name in print was becoming a bit jarring. (Click here for that post<\/a>, and scroll down to the subheading “June 16, 2010”.)\u00a0I wrote about it again in early 2012<\/a>, writing that I was trying to decide on a replacement middle name.<\/p>\n

So here’s what I’m thinking: I will change my middle name, legally, to Denali<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Here are the pros:<\/p>\n

*It starts with a D. My current middle name likewise starts with a D, so my initials will remain unchanged. I like my initials – JDZ – so I’d hate to see them change.<\/p>\n

*I once read a book about Denali National Park<\/a>. It was a great book, filled with amazing photos of the park. I decided then (this was back in 2002) that I would like to visit there someday. So…Denali has been a goal of mine for some 12 years.<\/p>\n

*It sounds cool. At least, I think so. I don’t know anyone else with that name. All too often, unique names equal weird names, but I don’t think so in this case. This time, unique seems really cool.<\/p>\n

*It has three syllables. This is good because that means it fits well with my monosyllabic first name. It also means that I’ll have a grand total of 7 syllables in my name, which is what my wife and all three kids have. So…yay! We’ll match.<\/p>\n

Okay, now here are cons…<\/p>\n

*It sounds feminine. You know, because it ends with a vowel sound. Like Rosa…or Mimi…or Netanyahu. I know that in some languages, adding a vowel sound almost automatically feminizes a name or term but, thankfully, no habla espa\u00f1o. And<\/span>, anyway, Denali ends with an “ee” sound, not an “a” or “ia” sound.<\/p>\n

*It’s appropriating Native American culture. Okay…actually I’m mixed about this one. In the book Neither Wolf Nor Dog<\/em><\/a>, the author noted how anyone who has the slightest bit of Native American ancestry makes a big deal over how great that is. People say things like, “Did you know I’m 1\/16 Cherokee?” or “My great great grandfather was 1\/8 Lakota.” So, it’s with great hesitation that I say…my great grandmother was a Blackfoot Indian. But since “Denali” is Koyukon and not Blackfoot, I certainly don’t have any more claim to the culture than I do to Greek, just because one of my other great grandmothers was German. To me, the bigger issue is…so what? We gave our first child a Scottish middle name even though we are not Scottish. I don’t think my choice of names should be limited only to those cultures that I, or my recent ancestors, have haled from.<\/p>\n

So, I’m looking for some feedback. What do you think?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I still want to change my middle name. I’ve written about this before. Over four years ago, I wrote a blog explaining that seeing my middle name in print was becoming a bit jarring. (Click here for that post, and scroll down to the subheading “June 16, 2010”.)\u00a0I wrote about it again in early 2012, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4968"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4974,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4968\/revisions\/4974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}